The Weight - Birthday Countdown: 14 Days

Fourteen days from now, this here music site will celebrate its first birthday. Speaking for the rest of the WeightStaff , we've certainly enjoyed the ride so far. Well, actually . . . there was that short post-summer unplanned hiatus . . . But just like Phish, post-hiatus, we came back better than .... um, well, never mind.

So to celebrate this two-week period, serving as a countdown to the big day, on each of the next 14 days I will be providing my top 14 favorite cover songs found on The Hype Machine. These songs will be in no particular order, just that they rose above the rest. And I've listened to quite a lot of them. Playing someone else's tune is always a gamble, but when executed well, it can be the highlight of either a concert or recording.

Let's get this started with Thom Yorke's solo take on Neil Young's 'After The Gold Rush' from the 2002 Bridge School Benefit in Mountain View, CA. Thom Yorke sounds eerily like a younger Neil Young here and seems to really go for it in this performance, as Neil was most certainly listening. Covering a Neil Young song at a concert where the man himself would later make an appearance is a serious risk, but when you front a little band called Radiohead, I think you know something about taking chances. I should also add, that I had the esteemed pleasure of being at the Shoreline Amphitheater outside San Francisco on this October night and listening to this track sounds just as good now as it did when I first heard it over five years ago.

Listen via the link below:

Thom Yorke - After the Gold Rush [Neil Young cover] (Bridge School Benefit)